News4kids is a dual-language educational media service for teachers and parents to teach and develop global knowledge for K-12 students. Our objective is to provide a non-fiction service that is informative, educational, and captivating. Once young people are exposed to global knowledge, the belief is that they will yearn to continue to be connected to global current events. Raising student awareness of global issues is increasingly important as the countries of the world become more interdependent.
Services each week include topical news stories for novice, intermediate, and advanced proficiency levels. Each news story is accompanied with transcripts, lesson plans, task sheets, and interactive quizzes. We provide actual news footage with age appropriate voice-overs, graphics, maps, illustrations, and text. The novice videos are safe for all ages with stories focusing on science, nature, and world cultures. The intermediate and advanced videos target more mature news topics in an age-appropriate context.
All videos and materials are available in both English and Spanish.
A veteran of the educational media industry, Jonathan has spent the last 11 years with Discovery Education & Espresso Education managing licensing partnerships with school districts, regional centers, and state departments of education. Jonathan has a degree from the University of Michigan School of Engineering.
Jon has been a social studies classroom teacher for the past 15 years. He taught numerous social studies classes at The Leelanau School in Glen Arbor, Michigan and The Park City Learning Center in Park City, Utah. Jon has always incorporated current events in all of his classes. His teaching ambition is to make his students smarter and more aware global citizens. Jon has a BA in history from Hillsdale College and teacher certification from Kalamazoo College.
